When the oldest living president says so, and perhaps the most respectable living president at that, you would think we'd listen.

__________________Safety. Obscurity. Just another freak, in the freak kingdom...
“The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.”

Read my posts with the following stupid accent: Savage American English

to some it isn't obvious...

and regardless of whether it is obvious does not mean it should not be said.

__________________Safety. Obscurity. Just another freak, in the freak kingdom...
“The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.”

Looking at the current US presidential race it's becoming increasingly obvious to me that despite my bellyaching and despair concerning the political and social climate in Australia, I really am quite lucky.

FFS, look at the Republican candidates. The at this stage runaway leader promises to expel 10 or 15 million people from the land of the free. Just like that. Has he ever spent as much as a minute trying to assess what this policy would require logistically, or what the consequences will be? Then there's his proposed tax reform. I bet he has not even done a back of the envelope calculation on how to spread each dollar of his tax increases out to cover 50 dollars of his tax cuts, but then Trump has always been more of a fan of so called reality shows than actual reality.

If the currently leading candidate isn't bad enough, the minor players are even worse. Anybody fancy a president who seriously believes in young earth creationism? What about a dominionist? Or perhaps one who does not care if a video "recreation" of organ harvesting of foetuses has no basis whatsoever in reality?

On the Democratic side. Clinton would have made a very suitable Republican candidate during the 60s or 70s, or fit in perfectly as the right wing conservative Prime Minister of Australia. Sanders, in the unlikely scenario of winning the nomination would loose to J. Bush.

No, I don't think voting for the Democrats is a wasted vote. There is enough difference between the conservative liberals in the pay of big business and the absolutely batshit crazy lunatics the Republicans are fielding to make it worth while. And, as has been pointed out already, every vote for Nader got Bush junior one vote ahead of Gore. I know which result would have been preferable, but that is unfortunately how the first past the post voting system pans out. Preferential voting is another aspect where Australia is way ahead of the USA.

It is interesting how our politics are propagandized down there.

__________________The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants, and it provides the further advantage of giving the servants of tyranny a good conscience.
-Albert Camus